The January figures are in, and Earth’s string of hottest-months-on-record has now reached nine in a row. But NASA said January stood out: The temperature was above normal by the highest margin of any month on record.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which calculates temperatures differently, said January’s average global temperature was a record 55.5 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius), which is 1.87 degrees (1.04 degrees Celsius) above normal. NOAA says this was above normal by the second biggest margin in history; the greatest was this past December.
NASA chief climate scientist Gavin Schmidt blamed the record heat mostly on man-made climate change, with an assist from El Niño.